Bloomberg Brazil’s Real advanced as the central bank refrained from intervening to weaken the currency for the third straight session and amid speculation former bank chief Henrique Meirelles would become finance minister if President Dilma Rousseff is ousted. The currency gained 0.4 percent to 3.5165 per dollar as of 9:02 a.m. in Sao Paulo, extending its gain this year ...

  Bloomberg Brazilian banks will write fewer mortgages this year as delinquency rates climb amid the country’s worst recession in more than a century, according to Moody’s Investors Service. State-owned lender Caixa Economica Federal, which issues almost three-fourths of housing loans in Brazil, also faces higher financing costs, imperiling its ability to write new mortgages, Moody’s said in a report. ...

  Bloomberg YPF SA is set to export crude oil from Argentina for the first time in two years next month, taking advantage of a new government subsidy. It was the state-controlled oil company’s first use of an incentive announced last month to spur drilling amid low oil prices. YPF sold 200,000 barrels of Escalante crude to PetroChina Co. as ...

  Bloomberg Venezuela declared a two-day work week for government workers and said it was seeking international help to save its power grid amid a drought that threatens the capital’s main source of electricity. The two-day work week, after the government added Wednesdays and Thursdays as non-working days to save more power, will last at least two weeks, President Nicolas ...

  Bloomberg Mexico’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest in almost eight years in March, the latest sign of stronger growth in Latin America’s second-largest economy. The unemployment rate fell to 3.74 percent in non-seasonally adjusted terms, according to a report published on Wednesday by the nation’s statistics agency, known as Inegi. That was below the 3.9 percent median estimate ...

  Vienna/ AFP The Austrian parliament voted on Wednesday on adopting some of Europe’s toughest asylum laws, as the country’s political leaders struggle to halt the surging far-right which triumphed in a weekend presidential poll. The hotly-disputed bill would let the government declare a “state of emergency” over the migrant crisis and reject most asylum-seekers, including from war-torn countries like ...

  BEIRUT / AP Militants from the IS group seized five villages from Syrian rebels close to the Turkish border on Wednesday, further weakening the rebels’ foothold in the Aleppo area. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network of activists monitoring the Syria conflict, said the extremist group took five villages in Azaz district, north of Aleppo, where ...

  SYDNEY/ AFP Sudanese refugee Aliir Aliir will complete an extraordinary journey when he makes his debut for the Sydney Swans against Brisbane on Sunday in Australian Rules football. The 21-year-old Aliir was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to parents who fled war-torn Sudan and arrived in Australia as a small child. He played soccer and basketball before taking ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany announced on Wednesday it is replacing the head of its foreign intelligence service, which has been rocked by revelations it helped the US National Security Agency spy on European targets. Gerhard Schindler, 63, will take early retirement from July 1, leaving the reins of the BND service to Bruno Kahl, a trained lawyer and currently high-ranking ...

  SEOUL / AP Facing mounting international pressure over its nuclear and missile ambitions, North Korea has set a date for its biggest political convention in decades next week that is expected to bolster young dictator Kim Jong un’s grip on power. The ruling Workers’ Party, led by Kim, will open its 7th congress in Pyongyang on May 6, the ...